68 MEMOIR OF ARISTOTLE. 



peting with Plato, who then stood pre-eminent in 

 philosophical fame, and whose opinions he had in se- 

 veral material points impugned. Whatever the fact 

 may be, the carelessness or timidity of Aristotle 

 was fatal to his writings, and had well nigh created 

 a blank in literary history, which might have for ever 

 deprived the world of this invaluable treasury of an- 

 cient learning. 



The extraordinary fate and miraculous preserva- 

 tion of these works, form a curious episode in the 

 biography of their author ; and the regret which 

 every friend to science must feel, that so much 

 has perished, is heightened by reflecting on the 

 imperfect and mutilated state of the little that re- 

 mains. Whilst the Stagirite distributed his other 

 property to his surviving family, he left the more 

 precious bequest of his library and manuscripts to 

 his favourite disciple Theophrastus, who in his turn 

 bequeathed them to his own scholar Neleus, by whom 

 they were conveyed from Athens to Scepsis, his na- 

 tive place, a city of the ancient Troas, in Asia Mi- 

 nor. The heirs of Neleus, to whom they next de- 

 scended, being neither men of letters, nor lovers of 

 books, (as Strabo relates,) totally neglected the intel- 

 lectual treasure that had most unworthily devolved 

 to them. The magnificence of kings had then be- 

 gun to display itself in collecting works of ge- 

 nius, which were sought out with an eager and la- 

 vish curiosity. It was a taste happy for the causa 

 of literature in general, although in the present in- 



